To the Editor: Australia’s imminent bowel cancer screening program will revolve around the general practitioner,1-3 whereas, in the United Kingdom, the GP will have virtually nothing to do with the national screening program now underway.4 It is curious that two programs with the same evidence base regarding effectiveness should be so fundamentally different. One explanation could be the differing health care systems in each nation. However, they are more alike than not, so the true explanation for the Australian methodology could rest with the outcome of the Australian pilot studies.
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- St Vincent’s Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Faculty of Medicine, Sydney, NSW.
- 1. National Health and Medical Research Council. Clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, early detection and management of colorectal cancer. Canberra: NHMRC, 2005.
- 2. Salkeld GP, Young JM, Solomon MJ. Consumer choice and the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program [editorial]. Med J Aust 2006; 184: 541-542. <MJA full text>
- 3. The Multicentre Australian Colorectal-neoplasia Screening (MACS) Group. A comparison of colorectal neoplasia screening tests: a multicentre community-based study of the impact of consumer choice. Med J Aust 2006; 184: 546-550. <MJA full text>
- 4. National Health Service. NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme [website]. http://cancerscreening.org.uk/bowel/ (accessed Jul 2006).
- 5. Bowel Cancer Screening Pilot Monitoring and Evaluation Steering Committee. Australia’s bowel cancer screening pilot and beyond: final evaluation report. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, 2005. http://www.cancerscreening.gov.au/internet/screening/publishing.nsf/Content/eval-oct05-cnt/$File/eval-oct05.pdf (accessed Aug 2006).